


Until those words are whispered, by one I love, hidden and silent I shall remain

by SapphireShelle91



Series: The Outlaw's Daughter [1]
Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Arthur Morgan has a daughter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27077077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SapphireShelle91/pseuds/SapphireShelle91
Summary: Stay quiet and remain hidden.That is  what Momma said to do.Until it was safe. Until Momma said it was safe.And Momma hadn’t said it was safe yet, so quiet and hidden is how Lizzie will stay.
Relationships: Arthur Morgan & Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Outlaw's Daughter [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1976173
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	Until those words are whispered, by one I love, hidden and silent I shall remain

_Year 1895_

It was dark beneath the floorboards. And cold. The dust made her nose itch and she wants to sneeze. But she knows she cannot because she must remain quiet.

Stay quiet and remain hidden.

That is what Momma said to do.

Until it was safe. Until Momma said it was safe.

And Momma hadn’t said it was safe yet, so quiet and hidden is how Lizzie will stay.

And Lizzie, Lizzie is a good girl; she listens to Momma and does as she’s told.

Not like Zac.

She bites down hard upon her lower lip as she rubbed at her eyes, desperate to rub away the fresh onslaught of itching from behind her eyelids.

Zac hadn’t listened to Momma when she told them to hide from the bad men who came to the house.

He didn’t stay hidden like Lizzie had. He hadn’t stayed silent like Lizzie had.

He had crawled out from their hide-y hole beneath the loose floorboards under Momma’s bed with a yell when they heard the gunshot and their mother’s own shout turn into a cry that gave way to a whimper.

Lizzie’s hands had been pressed so tightly against her mouth to keep from making a sound when the second gunshot sounded above her, silencing the furious shouts of her loud and rowdy twin, a tooth cut the inside of her lip, filling her mouth taste of blood that was already heavy in the air above her head.

She lay beneath the floorboards in silence, hands still pressed over her mouth to keep herself quiet as the bad men stomped about above, pushing things over and grumbling over ‘what a waste’ and ‘nut’ing here but ten dollars, ya think a whore of an outlaw would have sum’ting’.

And then they were gone and the house was silent as she.

Except that she is not so silent now. In the awful stillness of the house, she hears nothing but her pounding heart and the painful sobs fighting to break free from her tight chest.

She does not know how to calm her heart, but she forces herself not to cry, to be silent. Momma said stay hidden and be quiet until Momma told her it was safe.

And Momma hadn’t told her it was safe yet.

And Lizzie would only believe her.

So when Mr and Mrs Clarke come when light was shining through cracks in the floorboards, and their cries of horror and panic fills her once silent house, Lizzie stays hidden, stays silent. Momma only said to come out for her.

Even when they call out to her, she stays where she is, silent as her mother and brother. Because Lizzie is a good girl who always does as she’s told.

When the lawmen come later, she doesn’t come out for them either. Momma told her that lawmen don’t much like Lizzie’s Daddy, which makes Lizzie not like them very much in return, because she likes her Daddy – though he visits too little for Lizzie and Zac’s liking. Momma’s too. He had better visit again soon, so Momma can tell him what happened and maybe he will stay and keep the bad men away – so she doesn’t come out for them neither.

For a while, during the time there is light peeking through the floor boards, there is quite a bit of noise and movement above her hiding spot, but when darkness falls, the house falls silent once more and Lizzie can’t decide if she prefers it to the noise or not.

The family cat, Lancelot – a present from Daddy, during one of his visits last year. It was Momma who named the now massive ginger Lancelot, shooting Lizzie’s Daddy a teasing grin while Daddy simply looked exasperated – found her curled up in the dark, shivering in cold and immediately snuggled up by her side. His sudden show of affection surprised her, but she was grateful for the warmth and company all the same. She has Janey doll with her, but Lancelot is warmer. And alive.

He had always been more Momma’s cat than hers or Zac’s. He had always run away when she and Zac had tried to involve him in one of their games. He only seemed to like it when Momma patted him, but Momma said that was because Zac and Lizzie were too loud and they needed to pat him more softly than they did or he would scratch them. Lizzie still had a mark from where Lancelot scratched the back of her hand a few months back.

He didn’t scratch her now when she patted him in the dark, gently and lightly like Momma told her, his purring filling the silence and easing her into a restless sleep.

When she woke the next morning, Lancelot was gone and she was alone again. People came to the house again – she had still did not come out nor did she make a sound – but they only stayed briefly and then it was silent again.

It was after they left and it appeared that they would not be coming back again, that Lizzie discovers that she is hungry. Very hungry.

_Momma said to stay hidden_ , she argued with her growling stomach, but her stomach cares little for Momma’s words or for Lizzie’s promises. Her stomach cares only that it is hungry enough that it hurts.

Her hunger is so painful and she is so thirsty that by night fall she is breaking her promise to Momma and creeping out beneath the trap door in the back corner of the bedroom, hidden beneath Momma’s bed.

The house is dark and silent, with the only noise within being her pounding heart.

She takes care to miss the floorboards that she knows creaks as she scampers into the living area of the house. Even in the dark, she can make her way to the kitchen cupboards, finding what is left of the loaf of bread Momma made s few days back as well as snatching up three apples and water skin before she hurried back into her hiding spot.

“Momma won’t mind.” Lizzie told herself as she curled back underneath the floor boards, nibbling on her apple as Lancelot – who had appeared around her ankles as she got her food and almost made her jump out of her skin in fright – curled against her side. “Just til she and Zac are back. Just at night, its dark at night and no one will see me.”

For fourteen days, this was how Lizzie lived, hiding under the floorboards during the day, alone, and sneaking out for a few moments at night, before returning to her hiding spot, Lancelot by her side.

But the food and water were starting to run low now and Momma and Zac were showing no signs of returning and Lizzie was starting to feel sick. Her head felt all hot – despite how cold the rest of her felt - and dizzy and her stomach didn’t seemed to want to keep down anything, not even water.

She lay miserably on her back, staring up through the floor at the light dancing like stars through the cracks.

This was the first day that Lancelot hadn’t left her to go outside; he lay curled by her side, occasionally nuzzling her cheek.

She was too tired to pat him, but she was grateful he was there all the same as she falls into a painful sleep.

She wakes sluggishly sometime later at the call of her name. It’s a man’s voice but not Mr Clark or any of the lawmen who had been around the house those first two awful days. It’s different voice, rough and strong and so achingly familiar that she feels like weeping if she had any strength left in her to cry.

“Lizzie! Are you in here darlin’?”

Stay hidden, stay silent, Momma had said and for so many long days and nights, she had done just as Momma had told her too.

“Lizzie?! If you hear me, say som’thing! Or make a noise if you can’t.”

Lancelot meows loudly at her side, sitting up and scratching the floor boards above their heads. Footsteps hurry to them and Lizzie watched as the wood above her tore away to reveal a man she hadn’t seen in months.

She tries to speak, to greet him and welcome him home, but no words move past her crack lips. Lancelot jumps up from the space made above Lizzie just as the man reaches down and lifts her gently out of her hiding spot. For a moment being out in the daylight, away from her hiding spot and the cover of darkness, fills her with unspeakable fright and with what little strength she has left within, she uses it to fight him, to try and claw her way back into her hiding spot.

Momma said to stay hidden and silent. It’s not dark enough for her to be out!

“Lizzie! Lizzie.” She is being cradled against a large, warm chest, rocked as if she were a little baby – she’s no baby, she is a big girl of four!

Though it was quite nice to be held again and before she knows it, she is curling herself into a ball against the warm chest and letting out great heaving sobs.

“I have you. I have you.” Is what is kept being muttered into her hair as she is wrapped into a blanket, as she passively watches what few belonging she has – and which were not stolen away by the bad men – be packed away into a satchel.

Then she is being carried outside, into the cool evening air and she starts to squirm again.

“Whatchu ‘bout girl?” the growl would normally make her stop and behave, but at that moment all can she think of is her promise to Momma.

“St-tay hidden.” She croaked, reaching back towards her dark home, “Momma said…”

“I know, I know. But uh…” They pause in the front yard that Lizzie and Zac spent many days playing chase around. “You’re gonna have to listen to your Daddy from now on.”

She twisted her head to stare up at him, at her Daddy.

“Momma?”

Daddy runs a gentle hand over her hair before turning them around to face the old big tree that Zac enjoyed climbing so much and teased her for being too scared to.

She frowned at the two crosses that stood at the tree’s base. Zac would not be happy when he came home to find them there. She twisted her head around to ask her Da about them but stopped.

She had never seen her father look so… so sad before.

She lightly touched his face and he jerked his head at the contact before relaxing, pressing a kiss to the side of her head.

She stared back at the crosses, two of them side by side, painted white with some words and numbers carved into them. There were two crosses. One large, one small

“Momma.” She said looking at the larger of the two crosses. “Zac.” Her gaze moved to rest upon the small cross.

“That’s right sweetheart.”

“Bad men. Bad men. Bad men.” It’s all she seems to be able to say before her she overcome with the grief that had been dwelling inside of her – but she refused to let out – for days.

Just in case, just in case they came back to her.

It’s an odd feeling to cry without tears, but at that moment Lizzie could only manage dry sobs as she buried her face into her Daddy’s chest, her own chest feeling as it might exploded from the pain that dwelled within her tiny body.

For a while they simply stand there, in front the two graves, sadly standing out front of a silent, dark little house, father motionless and unspeaking while his daughter sobbed without crying any tears until she was dry heaving.

Lizzie’s dry heaving seemed to stir her father out of whatever thoughts he had lost himself in and suddenly they were moving, her father muttering away to himself as he walked them to his horse and placing her carefully upon of the great beautiful creature.

Before they set-off – set-off where Lizzie did not know, but far from here her Daddy had muttered – her Daddy forced her to eat and drink something, giving her some kind of tonic that tasted foul but helped her keep food and water in her belly. It also made her feel sleepy.

She didn’t know how Daddy managed to convinced Lancelot to sit quietly in her arms as he swung them both onto his horse. But he did and the ginger cat purred heavily against her chest as she hugged him close.

She did her best to stay awake, knowing as she did the dreadful dreams she had whenever sleep took her, but the longer her father rode through the night, the task of staying awake grew to great and before long, her head fell back against his chest, eyes closed and breath even.

It was the first time in days that she slept without nightmares, but she was safe now, safe and sound, in her father’s arms.

**Author's Note:**

> 18/10/2020 - This story about Arthur having a daughter has been kicking around my head for about two years, but I've only really started writing stuff, little one-shots regarding Lizzie, in the last six months, purely because I have been watching and reading so much RDR2 content and have felt inspired to write.  
> Lizzie, obviously does not exist in RDR2 canon, but her twin brother and mother do, with her brother and mother being Isaac and Eliza, the secret family Arthur lost to bandits coming to their, or rather Eliza's house, and shooting them, for all of ten dollars. Lizzie survives the attack by hiding under the floorboards and Arthur finds her around two weeks after the horrible event has occurred when he returns to visit the family. Finding the graves and in my headcanon, Eliza has no living family outside of her two children, Arthur is taking Lizzie back with him to camp, with absolutely no plan other than he needs to get her someplace safe.
> 
> I have a pretty clear idea of what I want to do with this series, but if you have any suggestions, please feel free to add them in the comments of this fic.


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